Packing material



June 12, 1923., 1,458,574

, J. A. CUMMINGS, JR

PACKING MATERIAL Filed Jan. 18 1921 mung n l 1 W by WM Patented June a 12, 1923.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPEA. CUMMINGS, JR., OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR T0 GEE DEE MFG. 00., OF

NEW YORK, N. Y-., A. CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

' PACKING MATERIAL.

Application filed January 18, 1921.

packing material which, altho suitable. for

many purposes, is primarily intended for use in the packing of piston rods and the like.

An object of the invention is to provide a packing material which may be handled, for placing it Within a stuffing box, while the material is in plastic form, and which will provide a durable and eflicient packing for the piston rod.

A further ob ect is to provide a packing of the kind indicated which will possess certain 'lubricating qualities such as serve to lessen the frictional resistance of the packing to the movements of the piston rod.

A further object is to provide a packing of the kind indicated which, altho placed Within a stufiing box in plastic form, will,

' after a period of use, become sufiiciently solidified so that when occasion arises for its removal it maybe readily removed as a solid body.

Other objects and aims of the invention, more or less specific than those referred to above, will be in part obvious and in part pointed out in the course of the following description of the elements, combinations, arrangements of parts and applications of principles, constituting the invention; and the scope of protection contemplated will be indicated in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings which are to be taken as a part of this specification, and in which .I have shown merely a preferred form of embodiment of the inven- Figure 1 is a sectional view thru a conventional form of'stufiing box showing the same to be packed with a packing material according to this invention, and a Figure 2. is a transverse sectional view taken upon the plane of line II of Fig. 1.

In attaining the above objects, it has been found that the same may be admirably attained by the use of lignum vitae saw dust or by using lignum vitae Wood which has been shredded, ground or otherwise reduced Serial No. 438,074.

to a consistency in which it may be mixed with a suitable liquid to provide a plastic body. A quantity of plastic material,.as L, produced in this manner may be thrust by hand into an empty stufling box, as G, until the box is suitably filled after which the cap piece H is tightened into place so that it servesto compress the material to an appropriate degree against the piston.

No further treatment is required except that from time to time it may be necessary to slide back the cap H and place into the box a small additional quantity of the packmg material, the cap being then returned to press this new quantity against that previously within the box.

A tightly closed joint may thus be maintained for an indefinite period.

It-has been found, in practice, that due to the frictional heat generated by the moving piston rod, or to the heat of steam or other medium within the cylinder, and to the pressure of the gland, or cap, H, the packing material becomes solidified into an appropriately solid and impervious body which may thereafter be handled for being removed from, or placed into, the stufiin box. The body, a thus produced and soli ified, 1S nevertheless of a sufiiciently yielding character that it will readily yield under the pressure of the cap H to an appropriate degree for maintaining it in sealing engagement at all times with the moving piston.

Since packing rings made up of compressed bodies of material may be produced in this manner, and since rings thus pro duced may be used within any stufi'ing box of suitable size and proportion, it may be here mentioned that it is a feature of this invention to provide packing rings produced in this manner.

Of course it will be understood, in this latter connection, that the moulds required for producing these packing rings need not necessarily be actual parts of machine cylinders; that is, they may be moulds of any appropriate construction suitable for properly shaping the material and for applying heat and pressure thereto. 1

Packings, as described, produced of lignum vitae; that is, both before and after solidification, possess peculiar advantages principally among whic may be mentioned:

First, that they are subject only to a negligible amount of expansion and contraction under changes in heat and moisture; second, that they are not de rimentally affected by ordinary commercial acids or other mediums in association with which machinery pack ings are ordinarily employed; third, they are not affected by, nor do they produce, any galvanic action. Also, they do not produce any other chemical action detrimental either to themselves or associated elements of mechanism; and fifth, they contain a natural oil, or Wax, inhe ent to the lignum vitae wood, Which renders them self-lubricating to a desirable degree so that their engagement with the moving piston rods produces a minimum of friction and inversely enables the packing itself to last for extended periods without necessity for replenishing or tightening of the gland.

' Any one, or more, of a number of different liquids may be used for reducing the wooden material to plastic consistency, the choice of liquids being dependent somewhat upon the location of the stuffing boxes and upon the work performed by the cylinder upon which the stuffing box is formed.

Ordinary" pure water has been found to be suitable for producing a mixture for general use.

A non-freezingliquid, such as a liquid base oil or like liquid, has been found suitable for use where the packing is to be employed on brine pumps, that is, within stuffing boxes which are subject to freezing temperatures.

Liquids, such for instance as castor oil, which maintain their consistency under heat, may be employed where the stufling box occurs upon high pressure steam cylinders or the like; that is, where the stuffing boxes are subject to high temperatures.

Other materials which may be used in combination With the lignum vitae with varying degrees of success are kerosene oil, cylinder oil and graphite.

In all instances, however, it is to be understood that the lignum vitae material Here it may be mentioned that in some I instances; that is, where the position of the stuffing box will permit, the reduced wood may be placed into the stuffing box in its dry condition, no binder being present.

Where the term reduced is employed in the attached claims, said term is intended to describe the wood in its shredded, ground, or otherwise reduced condition as hereinoefore mentioned.

As many changes could be made in this construction without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the following claims, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description, or shown in the accompanying drawings, shall be interpreted as illustrative only and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. A stufiing box packin comprising re-. duced lignum vitae.

2. A stuffing box packing consisting of a plastic body made up of reduced lignum vitae and a liquid binder.

3. A stufiing box packing made up of reduced lignum vitae compressed into shape suitable for use as a packing ring.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

JOSEPH A. CUMMINGS, JR. \Vitnesses:

L. GEssFoRi) HANDY, S. J. AUMILLER. 

